Field of Art
The disclosure generally relates to the field of network security and more specifically to the detection of security threats within a network.
Description of Art
Maintaining the security of computer networks has become increasingly important as computer networks are being used for more purposes. Many homes are equipped with a home computer network to allow the people living there to connect to the Internet, and many of organizations, such as corporations, universities, and governments, use larger, internal computer networks to allow the devices within those organizations to communicate with each other and outside of the network. Devices on these networks often store and communicate sensitive information, such as people's private personal and financial information, or strategic or financial documents of the organization. Therefore, maintaining the security of this information is, therefore, critical to the users of the computer networks.
However, modern computer network security threats have become much more sophisticated and are adapting at a rapid pace, and conventional security measures are not well equipped to deal with these new threats. Conventional security measures are typically deployed at the perimeter of the network (e.g. a firewall) with the purpose of preventing security threats from entering the network in the first place. However, these measures are frequently ineffective at addressing security threats that have already entered the computer network, which could occur if, for example, an inexperienced user creates an opening in the security of the computer network. Therefore, security measures that simply prevent the entrance of security threats into a computer network are insufficient for protecting modern computer networks.